The Bird of Hermes
by HotpantsHeather
Summary: Integra finds the Ripley Scroll and speaks with Alucard, with results, speeches and perhaps even riddles answered. AXI. Read and Review please.


Something short and Integra X Alucard Related. I thought he needed a good torture, but I suppose I'm quite evil. It pretty much explains itself. Read and Review please. I'll appreciate it.

Disclaimer: Hellsing isn't mine. The Ripley scroll can be found online, but it too is not mine.

* * *

_In the sea without lees  
Standeth the bird of Hermes  
Eating his wings variable  
And maketh himself yet full stable  
When all his feathers be from him gone  
He standeth still here as a stone  
Here is now both white and red  
And all so the stone to quicken the dead  
All and some without fable  
Both hard and soft and malleable  
Understand now well and right  
And thank you God of this sight_

_**The bird of Hermes is my name eating my wings to make me tame.**_

_**The Ripley Scroll**_

"It's to keep you from leaving," Integra said as she read and re-read the scroll. Alucard stood before her, straight backed at the sight of this spell. "I suppose."

Alucard stood before his master and only watched her reading from the book she had discovered in her father's room. Somewhere. Somewhere. Alucard felt an anger well up inside him. A rage. It hurt. It felt violent. Integra's leer was driving him mad. He wanted to ball his hand into a fist and hit her… but at the same time, he wanted her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do something that would show her that she didn't have all the control over her vampire.

"Remove your gloves, Alucard," she ordered suddenly and he stared at her. He did as he was told, revealing pale hands and long fingernails. "Show me."

He stepped forward and held his hands to his master, who took them in her own hands. She examined the smooth skin that lay beneath those white gloves. She turned his hand over, looking at his palm. Tracing the lifeline that stopped short. The love line that ran strong. He felt his muscles tense.

"Say it," Integra said. He knew what she meant.

"There is no reason…" he told her and she dropped his hand, standing up. Slamming her own hands down on the desk.

"Say it!" she ordered and he snarled at her. He frowned and put his hands parallel to her own on the desk. "Say it, Alucard."

No, she wouldn't win that easily. He straightened and moved around the desk. Integra watched with Icy blues. He took her arm and flipped her around, pushing her against the desk, her hands in his cool smooth ones. Her jaw clenched. He pressed into her and the desk moved a bit with a scrape. Integra met his eyes. She didn't have anything to fear. She controlled him. She smiled and leaned forward, her lips inches from his.

"Say it…"

"The Bird of Hermes is my name…" His voice came out in only a whisper. The Ripley scroll was discarded on Integra's desk, along with the book Abraham had placed it into. It included everything about the vampire. Ever bit of his history. Mina, Lucy and Seward. The man in the mental institution, his name long forgotten. Everything. The scroll had fallen out and Integra had read it. Read it. Read it. She left it sitting on the desk with the picture of the Bird of Hermes standing amongst it's wings variable. The green and red lions.

How to make a philosopher's stone.

_Here is the last of the White stone and the beginning of the Red._

"Eating my wings…" Alucard moved closer to her. He tasted her breath. Tea leaves and crème. He could smell her blood running through her veins. So pure, like a maiden's. He wanted her blood. Wanted a taste. He wanted her. He wanted her.

"To make me…Tame," an inch of resolve, dissolved and Integra leaned into him.

A kiss shared.

Red. Her perfect lips bled and she pulled away.

"Alucard!" she frowned and he smirked. She tenderly touched the spot he had nipped. Red came off on her finger. He lunged for it and her fingertip was in his mouth, then her lip took it's place. A pale hand was in her hair, running up in that mane of platinum. Integra felt his tongue gently caressing, accepting the taste of her blood in his mouth.

Integra pulled away.

"Away, foul beast," she uttered and he heaved a breath unnecessary. He frowned.

"Do not tempt me, foul woman, without giving me a taste. He has shared his fruit with you, will you not share it with me?" He moved against her again and she stopped him like a stone.

"It wasn't his fruit to give, Alucard," she told him, fingers to lips. He snarled and took her hand in his own, and pulled her against him.

"I proclaimed it. I am here now, unable to move, like a stone of red and white. Quicken the dead. No longer am I to move from here, until you release me, my lady."

"I have released you."

"Not properly and perhaps that is written by Ripley and maybe it was coined by your grandfather…perhaps you must have the philosopher's stone. A secret, it is, whispered into the night sky and carried away with the howling wind caused by a birds wings. A tame creature you see, wanting nothing more than to be free. Free! Free him! Ah, but what bird is he? A Byrd of Hermes standing up to his winged feet in wine. Where is he to go if he has eaten his own wings? Where is he to go, Integra? Where is he to go if a woman makes him proclaim a spell and the spell sticks him like a stone to her? What to do, Integra? What to do? What to do? What to do? What to do? A word is all it takes fair mistress. A word of release. How do you release a beast? How do you keep a beast, yes that truly is the riddle. How then shall you keep me, and release me?

"Ah, but how shall you restrict me? Another question with no answer? After I have released how shall you again restrict me? Answer me, Integra. Answer me."

Integra had watched with a steely gaze. Her blue eyes never leaving his red ones. She leaned up to his lips again. A kiss shared once more. Then, Integra pulled away, a word whispered to him, her lip forming the letters with such precision. Alucard's mouth formed into a smirk. A smile. He traced her jaw line with his index finger and kissed her again, before backing away from her, taking his gloves up in his hands again.

"And thank you God, of this sight…"

He bowed and Integra smiled.


End file.
